Tag Archives: Friends

A:”Well,he has invited me home.So I should be meeting the family soon”.

Me:”Good.Convey my regards to the newly wed”

Scene2

Me:”Hi F, Its been long. Heard about your marriage. Congratulations!!”.

F:”Thanks. Sorry, I dint inform earlier. So whats up with you?”

Me:”No probs. Thats ok. Doesnt matter. Am fine…….”.

Seems like am out of touch with lot of my old friends. A lot of us have. It is quite normal now a days. But even with all the easier means of communication available, they forget to update you on even the most important event of their lives. Am not demanding an invitation, but I do expect to be informed. And I still say it doesnt matter…

College was almost a decade ago. Yes we were very close then. But the years after that would have definitely brought a lot of changes to his life and mine. We couldn’t remain connected forever and so the bond slightly loosened from both ends. But not informing about the marriage does hurt. And I still say it doesnt matter…

We have all grown up and mature enough not to make an issue of ‘silly’ things. So even when it does matter, we pretend that it doesn’t. We pretend that these years has cultivated us into matured individuals to whom a marriage invitation doesnt matter. We pretend that we have been mellowed of age into those perfect adults who is able to adapt into the imperfect world.

We avoid people. It happens..

They avoid us. They should be busy..

We mailed someone and they didn’t reply.Can’t expect a reply all the time..

Someone mailed and you didn’t reply. They’ll understand.

So a small ignorance from an old friend and these many yrs.. So what??? I moved into the not-so-important list of someone. Doesn’t matter..I have so many others to move on with…He was important.But that was long back.

And I forgot to invite someone for my marriage. How can I remember all of them? It just happened so quick.. Doesn’t matter!!

How many excuses do we make everyday, again to pretend that it doesnt matter while it actually DOES? So what is it that does matter?

As long as we can pretend, though we are certain that our words contradict with the feeling inside, will we still say that it doesnt matter?

After the last blog about missing Chennai, the thought of listing the things I miss the most came..

Family, Friends and colleagues – Obviously all of us would miss them the most..

Office Coffee points were we discussed about hikes, promotions, office politics and resignation most of the times…If not any of this, it would be a piece of gossip..

Nostalgic Beaches– They used to be real fun most of the times with the milaga bajis and balloon shooting. And sometimes the air in the oceanfront drove us too emotional. Am sure it would be the beaches that witnessed the beginning, the end or sharing of our sad and happy stories of life… Btw, here they have but just 2 or 3. Not like Chennai where you had a beach every 5 kms 🙂

Movies in multiplexes – Going to a theatre is a luxury here, unless it is for a really class movie (30AED’s per head).

My job ofcourse – Though I was complaining about it when I had one, I realise how important it used. So this would be worth another blog 🙂

Accessibility to home – Any weekend you you want or parents need, we could always pack things in a jiffy, board a train and reach home in 12 hrs. I think we used to go home every 3 weeks before Pari came along, and after her birth our parents would drop in as they could not resist her laugh and giggles. If not home, we would be at the garden city at a favorite friends’. Oh Sheetal!! Miss you too..

ECR bike rides – The roads here may be 10 times better than what we had back home, but getting a two wheeler license is difficult. Not to mention that there is a strict rule to keep children below 7 yrs in the rear seat for safety and so rarely do I get a chance to be in the navigator seat.

The unending STD phone calls – Vodafone plan was STD 50ps/min 🙂 Here there are only 2 providers – Etisalat and Du. No competition in the market and therefore ISD rates are too high 😦 The govt here has banned internet phone calls. If caught you would be fined 10K AEDs and deportation. No wonder Etisalat contributes to 15% of the revenue of Dubai. So now it is all restricted to net chatting where we get disconnected every 10 mins and how much ever we talk, the satisfaction over phone will not be there…

Uma, my part time maid – She was too good that I have a blog about her and IHM suggested that it should be put in he inspiring stories..The once we get here are too expensive (25-30 AEDs per hour) and too bossy to bear..

The apna pan, the ownness… 🙂

Looking forward for our return though it would take a few years 🙂 🙂 God willing!!

FRIENDS!! All of us are blessed with abundance of friends.We love to remember everything about them. The time we met, to the time we fought, to the time we discovered each other, to the time we shared everything from sandwich to secrets, to the time we became cozy, to the time we became lovers and a lot other times…. In fact most of the fond memories of life are fastened to friends, who become an integral ingredient of our lives in no time. Just one question. Are all of you in touch with all of them?

As the unpredictable life detours the track to our inevitable destinations, we get dropped by a few others and drop a few on the way, get carried by a few and carry a few others along with, in the sincere hope of keeping in touch with them forever. Later we become conscious that most of them would have vanished, only those memories linger within…

We joined school as an innocent set of children and watched ourselves growing into mischievous but sweet, adorable little girls.We lived nearby, ate together, played together, reserved seats for each other in the school bus and remained together for that whole span of 11 yrs, until we parted in 10th, long back in ’97. 5 of us, are now scattered in different parts of the globe.We do not meet anymore, what’s even worse, we barely know what happens in each others lives until the school reunion 3 yrs back. Thanks to the organisers!!

11th,12th and then graduation, earned me a good amount of friends, most of whom I deeply adored and thought the relation would never end. Today after 7 yrs of graduation, I can count the ones meld with me in just one hand.There are few people at work too, but as soon as I switch companies or quit job, the same is likely to happen.

One of my old friend’s mentioned recently.”It takes a lot of time and effort to be in touch with friends. I would prefer to be happy with the people whom you have around”. Perhaps this is the right attitude to live in this world.

To me keeping in touch is not a chore.I value corresponding and do not like to send “hello.how are you?” one liners. Possibly, my circle of friends is too huge to be within my reach, or may be I should start believing that good things do not always stay forever,…

Some get married, fly abroad, after which there would not be any news. Some go on site for work or higher studies and evaporate in style 🙂 Some of them may sincerely want to keep in touch, but procrastinate. Some may have starting troubles. They do not avoid me, I know for sure. But I just get dwindled in their busy lives.

Thanks to the social networking sites – orkut and Facebook, under the mercy of whom, I am informed that some of them are married and some have children. Some who travel abroad, post a few pics in the initial enthusiasm which fades again with time. At the least, orkut birthday announcement makes me happy that they too are getting as old as I do 🙂

If any of my friends happens to read this, let me tell that this post is dedicated to you, esp. this line, “WE CAN NEVER BE FAR APART FROM THOSE WHO ARE SO CLOSE AT HEART”….. I would still love to rekindle the flame of friendship and keep them alive,…

My friend called this weekend, after she read the previous blog on CUSAT Arts Festival. We relived those old-but-gold memories of graduation. She hanged up after a while, but I was still stuck with the CUSAT times.

To a large percent of the population, professional colleges have become turning points in lives. Its you who choose to be good or bad, Its you who choose to be what you are,.. And some of you who would have joined the college, so naïve, so innocent,…. would be tuned,tamed and moulded into experts in technology and many other ‘subjects’ during these years.

It is during these years that girls (at least in Kerala) slowly overcome their timid, apprehensive, reticent attitude and show their inquisitiveness on one of the most important, rather interesting topics – sex. These 3 letters are deleterious, is what the parents normally teach children. Anyone who has a boy friend is taught to be treated as untouchables.When they hear about their daughter’s friend, whose sister has a boy friend, whose friend has seen an x-rated movie, the daughter would be asked to divorce that friend and keep no further contact. Good logic, eh?

Now, why I keep on mentioning ‘girls’ is because ‘boys’ somehow manage to jump out of this loop and find their on ways. Most parents have an explanation to this. “Afterall, they are boys…”Oh yes? Makes lot of sense!!

Under the impression of protecting their daughters, the parents are actually holding them so tight, that the children find no room to grow. No wonder that these ‘naïve’ girls, are either made use of or misuse their freedom, after they land in professional colleges..

However, during the millennium, when we joined CUSAT, there were a few in this category. So during one of the girls-only combined study sessions, topic got deviated a bit and the ones who knew, lined up to educate the ones who didn’t. I scored 50/100, and so was a moderator :-). The class was done, but the talks went onto aligned topics, one of which was masturbation. Too much knowledge in one day, had made the class weary. But they were still ready for more KA, Knowledge-Acquisition. To remind the class about the seriousness of the subject, Neethu* – the most educated of all, quoted an example. She talked about a girl who had to be taken to the hospital as the test tube that she used for masturbation had broken inside her. There were frowns,grin and sympathy among the class for the poor female. But it all changed to a big embarrassment, when Lekha* asked, “So is that how test tube babies are born?”.

This blog was in pipeline since the vampire blog. Blaming Pari always would be unfair, though she is one of the primary factors of my so called ‘busy-life’. The actual reason is that, uhhhhh.. I am a bad manager of time. Sadly, I am 🙂 But better late than never. Those wonderful memories of CUSAT and Arts Festivals, let me scribble some more of them right away.

Being the super seniors at college, we were in charge of Arts Fest 2003. Oh!! Back then, all of us were swamped, overloaded, having more than enough on our plates, so occupied,… that looking after Pari would be a lot easier 🙂 Each of us would be delegated an event (either off stage or on stage), and this would be in addition to the events that you participate in. People would need your help at green rooms. Back ground screens would be required for the dances and fashion shows. Guys provided the raw materials and girls proudly materialized their ideas 🙂 One time they even gave us a few buckets of paint and a huge screen which would be as large as a 9×11 dining hall, to create a desert background. We had a sleepless yet eventful night walking and rolling over the screen for the right sand dune impression. Well, sleepless nights were not a big deal when it came to winning the championship.

But Oppana, seemed to be the most effortless of all. Electronics (my stream) team had surpassed and wiped out all the competitors for the last 3 yrs. This being the 4th and final year, we had pressure to maintain the lead position. But as usual, it was a sure win.

So as mentioned in the previous blog, Parvathy (one of the Oppana team members) tried her best to overcome her heavy dopey eyes. We were yet to start our practice for oppana, which was supposed to be at evening 5. Time would be 3:00am. Dead tired after a day’s eastern dance practice, I found myself comfortable on one of those class room benches.

Walloping hands woke me up. 5:00am. The oppana practice had started. I got up with a jerk, wondering how much they would have covered already. They were nothing, but a bunch of sleepyheads, lazily swaying and clapping hands, going round and round in their own ways, with a clumsy smile at regular intervals. I too was sleepy and was sure I would end up like them during the practice. But Parvathy who stood in the front row of the team, looked more energetic than ever. I still wonder how she carries so much energy in her tiny body!! Hastily, I joined them. During the breaks, Parvathy taught me all the steps that I missed. We were so spirited then that we even skipped breakfast. A packet of parle biscuit and some bananas, was all we had for lunch. The restlessness during two previous nights of insomina had eaten 90% of my grey cells that I could not even recollect 2 subsequent steps even when it was 5pm. The whole team was in the same boat, except for Parvathy. The schedule was postponed by another 2 more hrs. But it did not matter. We needed a plan and we came up with not one, but three.

PlanA. Try to remember the steps and dance.

PlanB. If Plan A doesn’t work, look at your pair and dance

Plan C. If your pair too doesn’t know, look at Parvathy and dance 🙂 🙂

It was 7:00pm when they called our team on the stage. All of us lined up on the stage. The curtains raised. The song started. With huge expectations, the Electronics crowd cheered us. We started our oppana, the dearest, most favorite and reliable piece of event which always earned points to score high on the chart. Step1,Step2,Step3 and then the song started looking different. Jasmine, my pair on stage, gave me a weird look. It was not just me, but she too could not remember the next step. The same “What next?” looks reflected on the other pairs’ too. But Parvathy looked confident. “Switch to Plan C”,Reshma from our front pair whispered. All of us looked at Parvathy, our own Parukkutty as she was known, and continued. A few more steps, and Paru too seemed lifeless. “The song going the wrong way man”, she yelled from the front row. The rest of the eyes protruded. In that whole day, all we concentrated was what step came after the previous one. We did not notice who sang the song or how she sang. Height of bloody over confidence!! This singer team mate of ours was getting it all wrong. But we were on a stage and some presence of mind had to be shown. So we made an immediate on-stage plan.

Plan D. “We leave it all to you, Paru. Guide us please….”

“Girls”, Paru took charge, “Line up in front. 3 of u on one side of the bride, and 3 on the other”. We did.

“Now clap hands. 3 claps to your left and 3 to your right”. We did.

“Clap again, swaying to the sides”. We did.

“Now form a circle around the bride”. We did

“Z, You stand up and walk to the bride. Whisper in her ear something. Let the broad smile. Shy smile man. Shy!! Shy!!” Paru was all geared up. Her energy gave vibrations inside. All of us moved around the bride in similar fashion 🙂

In Oppana, brides remain in the chair placed on the centre of the stage and often give light shy smiles and reactions to her friends clapping and dancing around her.

Sajni, the then bride and the beauty of CUSAT ’03, did not smile , but got embarrassed by our performance. Little did she know of the mishaps in that morning. Since the role of the bride was just to sit and smile, she had just joined us before we entered the stage. Moreover, she too was experienced in the same role for past 3 yrs.

The crowd too sensed something wrong. Electronics team clapped in slow motion, with a vivid question mark on their faces. The opponent crowd started howling and Paru ran out of steps. So we came up with the next plan.

Plan E. Clap hands, walk in rhythm towards the stage exit.

The plan worked out. We escaped, but there was the bride sitting all alone in the centre of the stage. Sajni didn’t know if she should run along with us or wait for one of us to come and pick her up. Brides do not step without an accompaniment, during oppana. But we had broken the chord and crossed all limits, so before another plan was made, one of us (I cant remember who) ran to the stage and brought her along.

To make matters worse, it was an open air auditorium. We had to walk through the audience to the car waiting to pick us, and we literally covered our faces with a shawl.

We were obviously disqualified, but the rest of the class who were not present in the audience did not believe us. They thought that we were making up a sad episode for fun, when we told them what had happened. They had such a huge faith in us.

Years later, I still mention this as a joke to friends and family. But deep inside am hurt. Losing the title is no big deal. But the fact that we took the faith of a whole class so lightly, burns me even now. I still appologise……

Like this:

My friend and x-colleague, Saravanan called his friends Shaktipriya to pass on birthday wishes and invite her for his wedding. Both their birthdays fall on the same date, so it is easy for him to remember 🙂 This is how the conversation went.

Saravanan: “Hi Priya, Happy birthday”

S.Priya:”Thanks Saravanan. Happy birthday to you too”.

Saravanan: “There is a good news. Am getting married.”

S.Priya:”Congrats man. Am getting married too. So where is the girl from?”.

Saravanan: “Her name is Priya, actually Gnanapriya. She is from your hometown, Madurai. What about your groom? ”.

S.Priya:”His name is Saravanan. He is from your native,Chennai :-)”.

Saravanan: “When is the wedding Priya? Me and my Priya will definitely try to come. Oh by the way, Gnanapriya’s birthday also falls on the date as ours 🙂 ”.

S.Priya:”Incredible. And yes, you and Priya should come. It is in Madurai, on the coming Feb 16”.

Saravanan: “Oh my… Don’t think I would be able to come. I would be at Madurai the coming Feb 16, but it would be my wedding then”.

Now we are all waiting to see if their kids would share the same birthdays too. LOL..

Like this:

What would happen if a geeky Scientist guy fall in love with a beautiful, naïve girl?

How would it be for an easily gullible guy to live with an infallible womanizer?

Why would a lady who is obsessive to cleanliness marry a messy rich man living next door?

How can someone always act so strange that she goes to the extend of believing that her dead friend was reincarnated as a pencil?

What would be the result if all of them hangs out often at Central Perk?

When the nerd scientist (Ross Geller), a beautiful yet spoiled brat (Rachael Green), the gullible rich man who has a hard time asking women out(Chandler Bing), the strange and quirky (Phoebe Buffet), an amazing chef who suffers from obsessive cleaning disorders (Monika Geller) and the handsome but pathetic actor who is good with women (Joey Tribiyani), started sharing their lives and love, there evolved one of the most favorite TV shows of all time – FRIENDS.

I have been hooked to this serial since high school. Me and bro would be waiting for Star Tv to sing,”So noone told you life was gonna be this way, tang tang tang….” (Friends Theme song) and there we would be in front of the TV. Had there been a session for friends in school, we would have with cent percent attendance 🙂

Kudos to the script writers Marta Kauffman, David Crane and the rest of the crew, for coming up with this lively, quick-witted,romantic comedy. Thanks to the actors for making it brim with enthusiasm and energy.

I love friends, for the humour they have is so natural, so spontaneous.The laughter emerges out of the blue, so unexpected,so REAL…

I love friends, for the love, support and empathy the characters have for each other.

I love friends, for the way they make fun of each other and still remain closely knitted.

I love friends for they accept each other the way they are..

I love friends, for the way dark humor, light humor,friendship and romance is interlinked in the script that neither it is too sentimental nor too dim-witted.

I love friends, for the theme song they have…

“… But I’ll be there for you, When the rain starts to pour…

I’ll be there for you, Like I’ve been there before,…

I’ll be there for you, cause u‘ve been there for me too…”

And most of all, I love friends, for they help me connect with my favorite set of people and brings back a lot of memories of the past – the hangouts, the movies, the long walks, bunking classes, the college strikes, Arts festivals, fun and laughter…

I love friends, for they make my day.

After completing all the 10 seasons for the umpteenth time, I can confidently say that I could go on watching ‘FRIENDS’ again and again and again, and still roll over and over, giggling and laughing… I wish they continued after 10 seasons, but alas!!

And for those of you who frown over, let me tell you my friends that you need to be patient over the first few episodes of this dialogue oriented show, and once you get started, I promise that there would be no stopping…